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I’ve just started school this Monday, so posts are gonna slow down… Not like it can get any slower anyway 😦 Anyway I know I just went to Taipei late last year, so I don’t need that many things… and I kept to my word alright! I just bought… Uhh… A lot of sheet masks. Hehe!

Long post ahead warning!

So this is what I purchased:

Sexylook All-In-One Mask Collection (36s)

FaceQ Aloe Soothing Mask (10s)

FaceQ Cucumber Deep Hydration Mask (10s)

FaceQ Luffa Oil Control Mask (10s)

FaceQ Sake Brightening Mask (10s)

FaceQ Pearl Brightening Mask (10s)

My Scheming Skin Astringent Clarifying Mask (10s)

Lovemore Black Pearls True White Mask (5s)

Lovemore Wine Yeast Whitening Mask (5s)

Lovemore Rosa Hybrida Whitening Mask (5s)

Lovemore Red Pearl Barley Whitening Mask (5s)

Assorted Maskingdom Mask (5s)

Biore Super UV Milk (7x)

Biore Aqua Jelly Makeup Remover (2x)

Koelf Ruby Bulgarian Rose Eye Patch

Shara Shara Honey Bomb (2x)

Shiseido Therapind Lip Balms (3x)

See that’s quite decent!! Less than last year’s haul heh. Lots of masks to give to friends and family this year as well!

And here’s another top-view of everything unboxed. Let’s begin!

Dr Hsieh Mandelic Acid Botanical Body Lotion

500ml | 86 Shop | 320NT / SGD14 | RRP 800NT / SGD35

Guys this lotion smells sooooo good. I originally intended to buy some Mandelic Acid while I was in Taipei, as I really need some AHAs/BHAs for chemical exfoliation – but after I saw the un-discounted prices I was like WHOA what on earth ok then I just didn’t buy any there :p

I did however find that this lotion is fairly reasonably priced at only SGD14, and it’s a huge bottle of 500ml! It has really really mild brightening properties, but it’s perfect for my body – after I got back from Taipei, I got noticeably tanner even with all that sunscreen. I even have a foot tan-line…. Sigh. I’ve been trying to use this consistently, so I’ll let you guys know if there’re truly any brightening results!

First Impression: ★★★★☆

Shara Shara Honey Bomb

250ml | Watsons | 499NT / SGD22 | RRP 30,000KRW / SGD35

Everyone’s been raving about this on r/AB, and while I thought I’d held off buying it for the next year… Or not. This purchase just represents how greedy I was on the first day in Watsons :p I was practically sweeping things off the shelves, and once I saw this I was like w a t this price is really good for a brick-and-mortar-store so I BOUGHT IT I may or may not regret this oops. I actually bought two because of the good price, but then I realised it expires in mid 2016 – and there’s absolutely no way I’ll be able to finish both in time, so I sold off the second one. I opened it to smell, and it smells promising :>

First Impression: ★★★★☆

Koelf Ruby Bulgarian Rose Hydrogel Eye Patch

60s | 86 Shop | 299NT / SGD13

Yes! This was one of the things actually on my wishlist I created before I went to Taipei. Have any of you heard of the brand Pure Heals? Sephora Singapore brought it onto our sunny shores a few months ago, and I’ve always been up for trying new AB products in Sephora – and I feel like their stuff is surprisingly nice! Albeit overpriced – it is Sephora after all. I fell in love with the Pure Heals Ginseng Berry Eye Lift Patch, but it’s like SGD50 in Sephora so no that’s really overpriced 😦

I did find Petitfee and Koelf (probably under Petitfee too tbh) eye patches at 86 Shop in Taipei, specifically the Taipei City Hall and Ximending ones, and I chose the Bulgarian Rose one because I’m an absolute sucker for rose products :> I have heard that Petitfee’s eye patches are excessively scented, so I chose to stay away from the original flavours. This Rose one however seems decent – it’s moderately rose scented, and so far hasn’t been overwhelming! Although I haven’t placed it on my face before – I seem to be suffering from a prolonged bout of sore eyes, so I’ve barely applied any eye makeup or eye skincare in the past week for that matter 😦

First Impression: ★★★★☆

Therapind Lip Balms

Carrefour, Cosmed, Watsons | 111/128NT / SGD5-6

So my mother purchased one of each last year when we were in Taipei, and she found that this brand makes really good lip care products! Therapind is a Made in Taiwan, but is a subsidiary of Shiseido – no surprise there. Shiseido makes tons of great lip-care products, my other HG being the Shiseido MOILIP.

What my mum finds special about the squeezy-tube one is that it has little exfoliating beads inside, which we suspect is sugar because it melts so softly into your skin after a little while! However for the sake of convenience, I purchased the two twist-up lip balms for myself – one of them is for deep hydration (repairing broken lips), and the other is for daily lip care.

tQuality:

Bioré Makeup Remover Cleansing Gel

230ml | Watsons | 269NT, BOGO = 134.5NT / SGD6 | RRP $24.90

Guys would you believe me if I told you I purchased each bottle for SGD6 only??? This actually retails for SGD24.90 in Watsons Singapore I don’t believe this

But yes. I used to LOVE my DHC Oil Cleanser, and I preached it religiously – until I found this. Last year my mother purchased 2 bottles when we were in Taipei and she gave one to me – this is so amazingly gentle on my skin, and it removes all my makeup effortlessly. Plus, it’s not oil-based so it doesn’t run down my hands and neck and everywhere leaving me gross – I’d definitely classify this as a HG first-step cleanser!

First Impression: ★★★★★

Biore Super UV Milk

30ml | Carrefour, Cosmed, Watsons | 88NT / SGD4

This is so convenient! Biore sunscreen milks are really expensive in Singapore, at around SGD15-20. This one however… is 88NT because it’s made in Taipei :O While I’ve yet to use this on my face (wanna clear the open bottles first!), J has mentioned that this seems quite promising.

Dr Wu Intensive Renewal Serum with Mandelic Acid 18%

30ml | Qoo10.sg | $32 | RTP $65

Okay I’ll admit once again – I didn’t buy this when I was in Taipei :p I eagerly hunted through shelves after shelves of Dr Wu, Dr Hsieh, and Dr Morita acids – and I realised just how expensive everything was. It never really occurred to me that acids might be so expensive, relative to other products. I saw it on the shelves at around 1200NT, and I went back to the apartment and spotted a $20 off >$40 coupon on Qoo10 + SG50 individual coupons, so I managed to get it for a great price instead online 🙂 I’ve been using it every 2 days since I got back from Taipei, and hopefully it’s helping me smoothen out my skin! One gripe I do have about this is that it smells quite strange, quite synthetic – it does smell even when it’s on your face.

First Impression: ★★★★☆

Sexylook Carefully Select All-In-One Mask Collection

6*6s (36s) | Mirada | 499NT / SGD22 ($0.62/s)

I love this stuff! As you’ve probably seen on my mini-mask-reviews previously, I quite like their masks due to their one unique feature – the neck-lifting feature. Initially I was a little irked by the fact that you have to pull the wet straps over your ears (and in extension, your hair), but I eventually got over that and I realised how firming it is for my chin – bye bye double-chinny-chin!!

So this comes in 6 different flavours, namely Q10, Pearl, Red Wine, Bird’s Nest, Bulgarian Rose, and Tranexamic Acid! I have only tried the Red Wine and Bird’s Nest ones as of today, so I’m looking forward to trying the rest 🙂

First Impression: ★★★★☆

Maskingdom

Maskingdom Boutique | BOGO, ~SGD4 per sheet

Ridiculously expensive masks at about 200NT per mask – they’re supposedly dermatologist quality, so they’re really good… But still too expensive!! Until Jazell and I discovered that they were having a special 50% off discount haha which meant that each mask was 100NT. Still expensive, but alright for masks this beautiful 🙂 They are designed by Jimmy Liao 幾米, a phenomenal Taiwanese illustrator. I love his books, and I’ve got a collection of them at home – if you ever come across any of them, be sure to pick one up!

Ah right back to my point – masks are beautifully designed, each part of a different ‘category’ to target different skins solutions, such as hydration, aging, and all-in-one!

Ooh and we also got some sample masks and blotting paper from the shop since it was such a great promo – J took the blotting paper, while I kept the samples 🙂 How cute the drawings are!

First Impression: ★★★★☆

My Scheming

Mirada | 299NT BOGO / SGD6.50 each ($0.65/s)

Thank you Binequeen for recommending these to me! Previously I thought that this brand was just another one of those run of the mill brands, but after I checked out their stuff it’s pretty legit. While I was originally interested in the Mandelic Acid Brightening Mask, I decided to go for the actual liquid instead (good choice Allison), so I went for the skin Clarifying Astringent Mask. This mask is absolutely amazing – my skin feels thoroughly hydrated immediately after and for a long time afterwards, plus, my skin just feels tightened and lifted. Extra plus point: the weather is pretty hot now, so throwing one of these on will most definitely cool your skin down!

First Impression: ★★★★★

Lovemore

Mirada | 299NT BOGO / SGD6.50 each ($1.33/s)

Bought these for my mum – these boxes include 5 masks each, and are priced at 2 for 299NT! The silk material has an amazing fit, and smooth out on your face as if there was nothing on your face! They are however fairly expensive to me – so I currently prefer the other brands which do, in my opinion, an equally powerful job.

First Impression: ★★★★★

FaceQ

Watsons/Cosmed | 299NT BOGO / SGD6.50 each ($0.65/s)

ooooooh when my friends and I first walked into Watsons on our first night there, I spotted FaceQ masks, 2 for 299NT, and uhh…. we swept the shelves. Quite literally.

Because this is the sheer amount of sheet masks we hauled back that night. Guys you just have to understand that I really, really, really like FaceQ masks – they’re well-priced and they’re dripping with liquid, and they’ve never failed to amaze me! My skin always feels amazing after using them even after only a short while – I feel like this brand is tons better than My Beauty Diary to be honest. I know lots of skincare products don’t really demonstrate any actual changes on my hardy skin, so seriously – this stuff rocks!

First Impression: ★★★★★

Alright I think that’s enough for today. Bottomline is, I had fun in Taipei – you should too 🙂

Early last year, when I was still really new to all my beauty products, I was desperately hunting for places where I could get samples to try – I mean, skincare ain’t cheap! I didn’t even have a proper toner, sunscreen, or whatnot…

I came across the Sample Store, where they’ll send you samples to try in Singapore! They’re actually partnered with Singpost. Here’s how it works: you either pick free samples to checkout, or you pick up to 4 samples as part of a $5.99 order (or what they call a ‘handling fee’).

Pictured above:

Biore UV AQUA Rich Watery Gel (15ml)

Bioré’s Makeup Remover Cleansing Gel (20ml)

Sunplay Superblock SPF130 PA+++ (6ml)

White Formula Super Moist Toner (35ml)

White Formula Super Moist Light Toner (35ml)

My Beauty Diary Vanilla Moisturizing Aroma Mask x2 (23ml)

For instance, I’ve pictured 2 separate orders above: the two Bioré products on the left are free! While I do own the Bioré Watery Essence, and the old formula of Bioré’s Makeup Remover Cleansing Gel, I’ve never tried these new versions before – so this is a great way for me to try before I buy! 🙂 (plus, these sample sizes, 15ml and 20ml, are absolutely perfect for me to travel with!!!)

I picked Sunplay because I own the spray version, but I’ve never tried the ‘original’ – wanted to see how it compared to Bioré’s! The packaging for this sample is SO. CUTE.!!!!!! It’s basically a tiny version of the actual product, and it even includes a little ball bearing inside for you to shake it up :> I’ve yet to try this because I’ve got too many sunscreens open right now, so… yes!

I picked the White Formula Toners as I’ve heard lots of good things about them. I saw them all over the place when I was in Taiwan last year, and they’re supposedly the bestselling toners at their price range in Taiwan? If they’re somehow live up to my HG Hada Labo toners (they seem very similar!!), I’m all up for trying this!!

As for the MBD masks…. These aren’t the actual masks I received in my order 😀 Yes, I did order MBD Vanilla Masks, butttttt that was last year when I hadn’t started my foray into sheet masking yet. After using these MBD mask samples, I was like w h o a this shit is good – and then I went to buy lots more when I was in Taiwan :p

I suspect that Bioré’s samples are free because Bioré holds their own promos to send out free samples as well, so they’re naturally free. Ok but I should warn you guys that you should probably google some of the ‘paid’ samples before you order them? I noticed that Acnes samples are available FOC on the SG website, but they’re ‘paid’ on SampleStore!

As for the $5.99 order, I might be a bit auntie in this sense but I usually only pick items that are ‘worth it’. Like some of the samples are a bit ‘ehhh’… like they only include a 1x1ml foil sachet for what’s basically $1.50!?! Yes I’ve actually come across samples like this on the site before. Okay like honestly if they only want to send me 1ml I might as well go to Watsons (where most of the products available for sampling are on sale) and just squeeze >1ml onto my hand and try it on the spot for free right?? If you really want me to buy your product, I feel like you should at least provide me with enough product to sample it on my whole face…

Word of warning though: their samples (be it free or paid) run out REALLY fast!!! For you to get the samples that you’re interested in, you have to be pretty diligent in ~stalking~ their site… or waiting for their EDMs heh.

Do any of you source your samples from other sampling websites? Share them with me in the comments!

Thank you everyoneeee for being so patient with me for the past 3-4 months! I’ve finally got more time on my hands now that I’m preparing to start university, so I’ll be able to post more often now 🙂 A few weeks ago, I passed the 100 followers, AND the 10,000 total views milestones – so once again thank you guys for supporting my blog!

I’ll be doing a quick post today, since it’s my usual posting Sunday – I have quite a few more posts lined up for the next few weeks! I admittedly didn’t use (m)any new masks this month, so I’ve only included pictures of the ones that I haven’t previously tried before. Round 2 of mask empties, let’s go!

Somehow, it seem as though every single Etude House Mask I’ve tried has been all I want in a mask – fits well, smells fine, is long-lasting (up to an hour++), feels good, hydrates my skin immediately, and lets me wake up with glowing skin!! No gimmicks, nothing – I’m very pleased to have gotten 40 of em during the EH sale last November 🙂

Yeah seriously 3W Clinic. I first tried your Fresh Milk Mask Sheet a few months ago, but the smell was so overpowering I couldn’t stand to ever use it again. Now I’ve tried your Snail Mask Sheet – and it was just TERRIBLE to my skin!?!?!?!?!? As you guys know I have really hardy skin, and I’ve never reacted to anything…. until this. When I applied the mask to my face, my face began to sting like nobody’s business – I thought that it might be the initial application, but holy crap my face STUNG like mad even after a couple of minutes. My mum was like TEAR IT OFF HELLO so I thoroughly cleansed my face with Micellar Water and Hada Labo Foaming Wash, and even then my skin turned a little red 😦 It’s possible that it simply isn’t suitable for my skin, but damn that was bad.

Since the start of May, I’ve been trying to sheet mask every single day 8) It’s a truly lazy solution, but my skin is baby soft now!! Since sheet masking every day is fairly expensive, I’ve discovered that the remaining essence (mixed with some Hada Labo Lotion, if it’s not enough), is enough for me to put in a second dry sheet mask.

One of the things I was most excited about when I left for my trip was SHEET MASKS!!!

Let’s face it – lazy nights happen. There’re just gonna be some nights when I’m too lazy to spend an hour on every single part of my routine, and a sheet mask is a lazy, but a fairly great option to hydrate and nourish my skin at night. Sheet masks are, admittedly, fairly expensive if you buy them as-is, and it’s possible that they aren’t… particularly good.

That’s why I looked up the best masks around in Taipei and Hong Kong, and one name that came across as fairly exclusive to Taiwan was L’Herboflore.

L’HERBOFLORE’s mission is to offer consumers high quality skincare at affordable prices. Every detail of our products, including packaging, mask material, ingredients and fragrance, are designed meticulously to be of the highest quality.

While lots of people on r/AB recommended visiting the store at Taipei 101, I spotted one at Eslite Spectrum 🙂

It was more like a stand in a department store, but it was like mask heaven There were shelves and shelves of various masks all over the store, and everything was so well-designed!!! All their products are designed by local Taiwanese artists.

The staff member (pictured!) (although that’s not me in the seat) who helped me was extremely friendly and was super patient with me… Considering I was bumbling around in Chinese. 2 years in JC without Chinese… and… my vocab was practically non-existent haha. I attempted to explain to her my skin concerns, and she carefully picked out a series of masks for me to use 🙂

There are more than 10 different kinds of just normal sheet masks – there are also sleeping masks, eye masks, special multi-step masks, and of course famous biocellulose masks. I did sample the clay and sleeping masks (pictured on left, above) as well.

Isn’t it pretty?

This is the brochure I received, and basically, there are 10 different series of masks:

Aromatherapy

Clinical

Aegean Sea

Good Night Angel

Oriental Herb

Queen of Four Seasons

Royal Countess

Jet-Setter

Garden of Venus

Party Sweetheart

From L’Herboflore.com

The giant box my masks were kept in 🙂

Deep Sea Balancing Mask

Pear Crystal White Hydromask

Marine Collagen Resilience Lift Mask

Sweety Cocoa Moisturizing Mask

Rose Water Refining Hydromask

Cherry Blossom Whitening Mask

Sweety Strawberry Whitening Mask

Black Pearl Whitening Mask

Grape Anti-Aging Hydromask

Sweety Black Tea Balancing Mask

Camellia Nourishing Hydromask

The masks I purchased! (Please click to enlarge to see the absolutely beeeaaaoooootiful designs on each mask!!)

Purchasing a box of 64 for 3000NT (between my mother and I), we received a slight discount – typically, each piece retails for 50NT / $2.20. I also received a pack of eye masks (400NT / $17.20) that’d help with my dark eye circles.

I also wanted to note – mask stores in Taipei seem to have these amazingly cute samples they slap on your hand while you frequent the store!!! The top one is their bestseller Marine Collagen Resilience Lift Mask, and the bottom is the Hyaluronic Acid Moisture Energy Biocellulose Mask. There were definitely results seen from my time spent in the store I will be reviewing the various masks in time.

L’Herboflore can be found in Taiwan, as well as China.Taipei Eslite Spectrum Xinyi Store, B1 No. 11Sōnggāo Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei Taiwan

I guess I finally found the time to set up a blog – and I suppose this’ll be a place for me to pen down my thoughts on food and beauty i.e. lifestyle woo!

Etude House held 3 Princess Days Events a while ago – free shipping over USD$30, 15% off your order, and 50% off their famous I Need You sheet masks. This comes up to around $0.50 per piece. To be honest, previously I’d never even considered buying from Etude House because their image is just so girly. But a triple deal like this doesn’t come so often – who can pass up sheet masks?! Judith and Mary wanted some too, so we had to do some P&C to figure out how to get it under 1.7kg and over $30. I got 40 sheet masks – 2 of each!

So exciting!

I’m pretty sure this haul of sheet masks is gonna last me the entire of next year…

I also got a couple of other products to fill up the $30 – one Play 101 pencil in #29, a ‘creamy’ burgundy, and a Rosy Lip Tint in #7. I’ve come to really like both products 🙂

Swatch of the Play 101 pencil in #30. Immediately after it’s drawn on, you’re able to smudge it into a smokey eye – but wait any longer and this thing does. not. budge. No guarantees on oily lids though – with oily lids + the crazy humidity here, I’m actually not too sure whether this would last a full day out.

The sponge tip can be removed and washed easily. The top part of the swatch is blended – it gives a fairly sheer coverage on your lips.

This Rosy Lip tint colour is pretty much an MLBB colour – it’s slightly coral and great for everyday use if I’m out! I have dry lips, and it’s quite amazing how this doesn’t really accentuate the flakes on my lips.

Also, from RRS – the famous Snail Recovery Gel! My first impression of it:

The good:

I really like the consistency of this product, you don’t need a lot to spread over your face.

It dries quickly – for someone who doesn’t like the sticky feeling of gels/creams on your face, this is good.

Because it’s quick dry, it’s great as a makeup base. It locks your hydratants/nutrients in; if you don’t have time for a full skincare routine in the morning before rushing out, this keeps me hydrated enough under BB cream/foundation.

Inexpensive – about SGD$5 for one tube of 45ml!?

Not to mention this is always fairly fresh. I ordered this in November, and the production date was in October.

It’s in a squeeze tube!!! Not a jar!!! Keeps me from getting all those snails underneath my nails.

The not so good:

Because it dries so quickly, I’m not actually sure how much moisture it’s providing? The quick dry effect doesn’t leave my face feeling as hydrated after an hour as compared to the Hada Labo 3D Perfect Gel. Personal preference!

Is this a not so good? It’s 74% snails – I’m still fairly unfamiliar with this ingredient! I’m really interested in trying out snails (I’ve got more snailz on the way), and so far there haven’t been any negative effects on my skin. But if you’re icky about snails, this probably isn’t for you…

Is it as effective as some other creams? Maybe not. It does hydrate, but doesn’t cause me to wake up with a glowy face.

Lifestyle | Beauty | Food

I'm Allison, and I run milliefeuille, a Singapore beauty and lifestyle blog. I love reviewing the latest and most effective Asian (and the occasional Western) skincare and beauty products, so follow me on my quest to get the best skin possible! :)